Advancing theoretical models for exotic neutron-rich nuclei

Nuclei far from the valley of stability pose challenges to our understanding of nuclear structure. Examples include halo nuclei in both the light- and medium-mass regions, and bubble nuclei, which exhibit unique density profiles. Traditional concepts like magic numbers lose their universality in these cases. We explore how incorporating microscopic structure into reaction theories enables precise probing of nuclear density profiles using various inclusive and exclusive reaction observables. Additionally, this paves the way for using tested nuclear inputs involving exotic nuclei to estimate astrophysical reaction rates, thereby refining r-process nucleosynthesis models and predicting elemental abundances.